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Saturday, December 20, 2014

#79: Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor: Knowing Thy Nemesis (System)

Often, I
find myself taking a more critical look at games than I otherwise
intend to when writing these articles. Typically, my mind tends to
focus on what could have been improved, identifying positive aspects
only in passing. In the spirit of the holidays, and in light of what
I have been playing recently, I feel it is time to invert this. My
topic for this week, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, has much
valid criticism that can be levied towards it. However, there is a
lot of good that is worth discussing.

In
particular, the Nemesis System has a lot of potential for improvement
and reiteration. As one might expect from a game with “Middle-Earth”
in the title, Shadow of Mordor takes place in the same world as
Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series. Because of this, the game's
enemies consist almost entirely of Sauron's Orc Army, including the
Captains and Warchiefs. What is interesting about the Nemesis System
is that it allows this army to change overtime in a more systematic
nature than other video games have been able to do in the past.

Basically,
every Captain or Warchief has a Power Rating and a list of combat
traits. These traits can consists of strengths, such as bonus attack
power or invulnerability to ranged attacks, and weaknesses, like
instant death from stealth attacks or a fear of other creatures in
the game world. Overtime, by performing feats and gaining recognition
for other orcs, these leaders can increase in power. As they do, they
will start to lose weaknesses and gain strengths. It is even possible
for them to duel other bosses for promotions. Forcing the player to
run away, or killing them (the protagonist is immortal, so he will
just respawn) will also result in an increase in power. Further, the
enemy leader in question will remember any confrontations players
have had with them and comment on them in future encounters. Players
can also sabotage a commander's attempt to gain power by completing
optional side missions.

The most
obvious positive of this mechanic is that it allows for storytelling
born purely of the system itself, in an emergent manner. Out of all
of my friends that also played Shadows of Mordor, many of them can
recount the tales of their struggle against one or two particularly
powerful orcs, which they know by name. Though my particular
example's name has been forever lost, I can distinctly recall my
struggles against a powerful orc captain and his poisoned weapon,
with increased physical attack power. The more he killed me, the
stronger he grew, eventually gaining immunity to both ranger attacks
and close-quarters finishing moves.

Each
time I fought him, he would mock me for my continuous losses against
him and his forces. Eventually, these victories against me gained him
the rank of warchief, and two loyal bodyguards. After my seventh
attempt, I finally caught him by surprise, diving from my perch,
shoving my dagger into his backside. A tense ten minute exchange of
hit-and-run tactics eventually turned in my favor, as my final ambush
resulted in his stinking head being ripped straight off of his cold,
lifeless corpse. It is worth noting that this exchange between myself
and the now nameless warchief was not part of the main campaign at
all. This was entirely driven by the systems at work, created by my
interactions with the game on the fly. Many other such stories were
created with this system, and each of them were unique to the player
involved.

Another
advantage to this system is that it requires very little in terms of
explanation. Though the game does tutorialize it during the main
campaign, my experience with the game, and those of many others,
demonstrates how unnecessary it was. Generally, most of us were
already spending so much time fighting captains and warchiefs that we
had already figured out the nuances of it before the point in the
story where we were supposed to learn. Simply by interacting with the
systems, we found that it was fairly easy to understand how these
mechanics worked together and how we could interact with them. This
is not to say that the tutorials should not exist, as obviously some
gamers might take more time and/or teaching to understand what is
going on. I am merely stating that the simplicity of the system
itself makes achieving said understanding a less arduous task.

The last
effect of the Nemesis System, and the most interesting in my opinion,
is the ability it gives the player to manipulate and control, both
directly and indirectly, the enemies they fight. Through the choices
of which side missions to complete, leaders to go after, and how they
approach encounters, the flow of power in Sauron's army will be
altered. As a result, the player's actions shape what kind of forces
they go against. Continuous failures (or inaction) and deaths will
result in stronger enemy forces in the area. Conversely, taking out
enemy captains and/or stopping them from gaining power will keep them
weak and easy to kill. Worth mentioning is that there is no, “You
chose X, so Y happened as a result,” like we find in many RPGs.
Rather than doing this through some binary choice, is it done in a
systematic manner. No one decision will have a dramatic effect, but
the player's attitude towards completing objectives will affect how
many opportunities the opposition has to grow, giving them indirect
control over these leaders.

However,
this is not the only way players can assert their influence over
their foes. Very late in the game's main story, the protagonist gains
the power to “Brand” orcs, giving him control over their thoughts
and actions. When they are weakened or scared, it is even possible to
do this to the captains and warchiefs in the army. In this way,
players can insert spies and double agents into Sauron's army to gain
control of portions of it. There is much potential to be had through
this mechanic. For example, if a particular warchief is causing
trouble, it is possible to brand one of their bodyguards, or get
another one of the player's already-controlled captains into that
position. When the time comes to strike, these “bodyguards” can
be ordered to turn on their own commander, granting the player an
extra advantage they may not otherwise have been given.

The
addition of Branding also affects the flow of power. Since players do
have a hand at indirectly influencing the flow of power, they can use
this influence to funnel more of the power to the captains and
warchiefs currently under their control. At the same time, they can
starve the forces they want to take over or eliminate, by helping
their allies get stronger. Instead of participating in side-missions,
hoping to prevent the captain's success, they will be assisting him
in completing his objective. Much like in Assassin's Creed: Rogue,
this is a very interesting inversion of mechanics.

With
this Nemesis System in place, Shadow of Mordor shows the power of
systematizing elements in the game to give players their own
opportunities to affect the game world. Though the game itself
suffers from really bad writing, the mechanics are solid. I earnestly
feel that given a different lore to work with, and more solid mission
design and writing, these systems show great potential. Though fairly
simple, I foresee a lot that could be done with this core.